Escondido Country Club, which opened 1964, is scheduled to close April 1.
Photo by CHARLIE NEUMAN/U-T San Diego

ESCONDIDO  Aiming to prevent Escondido Country Club golf course from becoming a large housing tract, nearby residents say they’ll pursue a ballot measure to make the 80-acre space a permanent greenbelt.

The new strategy was unveiled Wednesday night during a boisterous neighborhood meeting attended by more than 600 club members and residents living near the north Escondido course.

Residents have banded together in protest since new owners announced last month that they would close the financially struggling country club April 1.

The owners have also said it might get replaced with housing, the only kind of development the property’s zoning would allow.

Describing the new owners as slick Beverly Hills land speculators who can’t be trusted, neighborhood leaders and their team of attorneys urged residents Wednesday night to unite behind the proposed ballot measure.

They said replacing the course with as many as 400 houses would lower nearby property values, destroy the area’s upscale ambience, increase crime, and bring years of construction noise.

“There isn’t any graffiti here and the houses are well-tended, but things would change and not for the better,” longtime resident Jim Ahler told the packed house at New Life Church. “But they want you to sit on your behinds and let this whole thing pass you by.”

Instead, neighborhood leaders want residents to donate a total of $500,000 for consultants, attorneys and paid signature gatherers.

They would need signatures from more than 5,000 registered city voters to force the City Council to either adopt their initiative, or place it on a future election ballot for approval.

A spokeswoman for the new owners, Stuck in the Rough LLC of West Hollywood, said after the meeting that she couldn’t provide much reaction to the ballot measure strategy.

“They didn’t give a lot of details about what it would do,” said the spokeswoman, Erica Holloway.

Holloway also said Stuck in the Rough sympathized with the residents.

“Their concern is natural and understandable because the community has an important stake in what happens,” she said. “We want to work with them and hear their concerns about the need for open space, parks and trails.”

During the meeting, neighborhood leaders harshly criticized Stuck in the Rough as a predatory corporation.

“They watch golf courses like hawks because many are closing and they want to buy them up,” said Ken Lounsberry, a longtime local attorney and former Escondido city manager. “You’d sit back and admire it if you weren’t the victim.”

Lounsberry also said residents should be skeptical of Stuck in the Rough’s public comments about why it bought the course.

The company has said it bought the club intending to keep the course open, and that the decision to close came only after an analysis showed that falling revenue and dwindling membership made that impossible.

But Lounsberry said that version of events runs counter to his experience as an attorney for housing developers.

He said corporations don’t buy large properties without exploring what the possible future options are. And he said the leaders of Stuck in the Rough are particularly accomplished business professionals.